Secure Innovation Starts with Understanding: Insights from HSD Café

Innovation is essential in a rapidly digitalising world, but without security, there can be no sustainable progress. During the HSD Café on 10 April, security professionals, entrepreneurs, and innovators came together to explore how to make a real impact in a digital world. Three speakers shared their insights on secure innovation, embedding security into organisations, and the current state of security innovation.

Fleur van Leusden (CISO at the Electoral Council): Gaining Insight into Suppliers and Supply Chains

Fleur van Leusden opened the event with a sharp perspective on supplier management. As CISO at the Electoral Council, she emphasised that selecting secure service providers is a shared responsibility between clients and suppliers, not something that falls solely on the supplier’s shoulders.

She outlined how her team started mapping out their supplier ecosystem, classifying vendors based on criticality and relation to core business processes. Fleur also stressed the importance of supply chain visibility: your suppliers have suppliers too. Without a clear overview, vulnerabilities arise. In case of a data breach, the public doesn’t blame the supplier — they blame the organisation that owns the compromised data. Transparency and collaboration are essential for a resilient supply chain.

Marianne Schinkel (CISO at Essent & Founder of Smartbit Security): The Innovation Compass for Security

Marianne Schinkel presented her Innovation Compass for CISOs, designed to help embed security more effectively within organisations. Using four directional points, she offered practical tools for navigating innovation:

• North – Invest smartly through dialogue: Engage in continuous conversations from start to finish and run behavioural change programmes in parallel.
• East – Set a clear course: Work from a clear, shared roadmap, and align frameworks and principles in advance. Let those responsible communicate about progress, so that security becomes more natural and embedded.
• South – Choose and embed together: Select and implement innovations with the business. Regardless of the tool, always seek real value.
• West – Aim for sustainable innovation: Take a long-term view and innovate in small iterations aligned with business rhythms.

Her call to action: CISOs must think beyond their own role and step into the shoes of the business. Don’t just ask, “What are your pain points?” Instead, co-create the path forward.

Bram de Bruijn (Beyond Products): The State of Security Innovation in 2025

Bram de Bruijn shared insights from the report “The State of Innovation in Security 2025”, based on interviews with more than 70 security professionals. He explored the main innovation roadblocks and frustrations that CISOs experience in their collaboration with vendors.

Key themes included:

• The most pressing challenges CISOs face in 2025
• The top 5 frustrations when working with suppliers
• How CISOs stay informed about market trends
• How they test solutions through pilots and proof-of-concept

He concluded with practical recommendations from CISOs to vendors: deliver real value, understand the organisational context, come top of mind as early as possible, and build trust — don’t just sell a product.

Key Takeaways: Practical Guidance for Digital Innovation

Recurring insights from all three speakers offered practical guidance for those aiming to innovate meaningfully in a digitalising world:

• Facing complex decision-making journeys? Understand both your users and key decision-makers.
• Drowning in technical jargon? Speak your audience’s language.
• Struggling to stand out? Choose a niche and become renowned within it.
• Lacking trust? Work iteratively, be transparent, and focus on results.
• Overemphasising tech? Communicate the right message at the right moment.

Security innovation isn't just about technology — it's about collaboration, mutual understanding, and staying in sync with the business. Only then can a real impact be achieved.

Security Delta thanks the speakers and audience for their valuable contributions and looks forward to future discussions on this topic.

Several times a year, we organise an HSD Café around a key security topic. The HSD Cafés serve to inform the network about the latest developments and opportunities, but also to discuss challenges. The HSD Cafés are organised by HSD Office and are open to professionals, experts, students, and all who are interested.